Eye for an Eye: The Role of Armed Resistance ... - Freedom Archives

terrorist violence was initiated by the Klan, as well as increased harassment by
local police occurred in McComb . The increased violence was in response to a
rapid influx of Black people to the city from rural Mississippi, particularly neigh-
boring Amite County. Freedom Summer only accelerated the campaign of terror.'
COFO activist sand many in the Black community believed that the local
and state police never seriously pursued the bombers or were in fact in conspiracy
with them . Local and state police investigated COFO members for the bombings
and on occasion publicly blamed Movement activists for the terrorism . In re-
sponse to the violence, individual households and Movement people prepared to
defend themselves . While they did not possess the firepower of their enemies,
McComb local Black activists were also armed. While armed Black patrols did
not prevent much of the bombing, they did often provide an armed response to the
Klan attacks . On June 22, the white supremacist terrorists attempted to bomb the
home of McComb NAACP leader Claude Bryant, while also bombing two other
homes that evening. Bryant, as many other local NAACP members, worked at the
Illinois Central Railroad and was the owner of a local barbershop . On April 23,
1964, Bryant's barber shop was bombed . A resident of the politically active
Baertown community of McComb, Bryant was considered by many to be the
principal leader of the McComb Movement . The dynamite did not reach Bryant's
house, exploding twenty-five yards from the NAACP leader's property. But the
impact of the explosion jarred his house, and Bryant grabbed his rifle and fired at
the vehicle of the perpetrators . From this day on, until the terrorist campaign has
ceased, an armed patrol was established around Bryant's home in the evenings
composed of local male NAACP members . Bryant also purchased a high powered